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White House: DNI Clapper secured Americans' release from North Korea

An unnamed senior administration official, speaking Monday aboard Air Force One en route to Beijing, discussed Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's role in securing the release of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller from North Korea.

By JC Finley
James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, testifies during a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on Potential Changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on October 29, 2013. (UPI/Pete Marovich)
James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, testifies during a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on Potential Changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on October 29, 2013. (UPI/Pete Marovich) | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The White House credited Director of National Intelligence James Clapper with securing the release of detained Americans Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller from North Korea.

An unnamed senior administration official, speaking Monday aboard Air Force One en route to Beijing, discussed the operation.

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President Barack Obama "approved that mission last week and we prepared for several days. And then Director Clapper flew out and was on the ground long enough to retrieve the two Americans and fly them home."

Their release was announced Saturday.

"We can't say for certain what drove the timing," the official acknowledged. "We've obviously been making clear to the North Koreans, publicly and privately, that we'd like to resolve the cases of the remaining Americans. And so this is something that came together over the last several weeks. And so we can't gauge exactly why they chose to do this now but it's a positive step clearly that they released these Americans, allowed them to return home to their families."

Bae and Miller returned to the U.S. on Sunday morning, touching down at Lewis-McChord Air Base in Washington State, where loved ones awaited their arrival.

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When asked why the president selected Clapper to serve as the envoy, the White House official explained that Clapper's security role "was appropriate, given that this wasn't going to be a diplomatic effort. ... So sending a senior intelligence official we felt was the right fit."

Clapper did not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The two Americans are the last known U.S. citizens to be detained in the secretive country.

Bae's two-year detainment was the longest an American has been imprisoned by North Korea in many years. The 46-year-old missionary from Lynnwood, Washington, was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for "hostile acts" against the North Korean government after he was arrested while leading a group of tourists in the north of the country in 2012.

Miller, 24, allegedly requested asylum in North Korea in April and had been sentenced to six years of hard labor for "hostile acts."

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